Unable to picture or even guess the situation, I stupidly kept my mouth open and obediently waited for Lee Hyeonseok’s words. Even without looking, it was obvious how stupid my face must look right now. But how was I supposed to understand that someone had already buried a person where I had tried to bury Lee Hyeonseok?
Lee Hyeonseok smirked and opened his mouth again. This time, the story went even further.
“So you have to be investigated by the police.”
“……??”
I couldn’t understand Lee Hyeonseok’s words at all. Hundreds of question marks floated in my head. Lee Hyeonseok was acting so nonchalant that I thought he might be joking. Rich kids’ jokes were different in every way. It wasn’t even funny. I was pondering how to respond to Lee Hyeonseok’s joke with my stupid face.
But then Lee Hyeonseok took back the phone he had given me. He searched for something and handed it to me again. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the phone screen and just stared blankly at Lee Hyeonseok. He nodded, telling me to hurry up and look.
「”I Never Wanted This.” Resentment? The pot calling the kettle black?
A woman in her 20s who murdered her neighbor and buried the body in a mountain has confessed and been arrested. The Seoul Police Station announced they have filed for an arrest warrant against Lee (24) on charges of murder and abandonment of a corpse.
According to the police, Lee (24) called out her neighbor Kang (25), who lived in the same building, on the morning of the 17th, beat him to death with a blunt object, and transported the body in a rental car she had borrowed the day before. Lee (24) confessed that she had dug and buried the ground with a shovel she had purchased the day before, but fled hastily after sensing someone’s presence and couldn’t retrieve the shovel.
It is known that Kang (25) has been in a legal battle over allegations of sexually assaulting Lee (24) last September.
As it was recently revealed that Lee (24) is of the gender ‘Omega,’ the statement by Kang (25) that she had initiated the relationship first gained credibility, increasing the likelihood of an acquittal, and public sympathy began to shift toward him among netizens. Additionally, Lee (24) began suffering secondary harm from mockery and criticism.
In response, Lee (24) impulsively committed this act…(omitted)….」
“Is this real?”
“Did you sell out your country in a past life?”
I was so shocked that even at Lee Hyeonseok’s comment that was begging to get punched, I kept my eyes fixed on the screen. I had received so much shocking news since morning that my head was aching. Clutching my throbbing forehead, I reflected on my life.
I just grew up not receiving proper love from my parents, so whenever someone was even a little nice to me, I said it was good and listened well. I lived uprightly, if not perfectly good, at least trying not to be hated.
Having never received complete love from anyone, I became timid and couldn’t develop the courage to actively interact with others. When hearing things from others, I became quick at improvising to avoid showing any rough edges. As a result, I became easygoing and just became someone who lived going with the flow.
Well, when you live like me, this is how things can turn out. It’s not like I lived being intimidated either. I didn’t live holding back what I wanted to say. I didn’t commit crimes, didn’t cause trouble, compromised a bit to avoid friction, yielded to power a bit—wasn’t I living as an utterly ordinary person?
How on earth did my life get this twisted? How twisted does it have to get for me to be investigated by the police?
The only crimes I’ve committed since possessing this book character are attempted murder by brick attack and attempted corpse abandonment that ended in failure… I guess I did do things worth being investigated for.
No, but this is all because of that bastard… Wasn’t it basically self-defense?
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Huh? Yeah?”
“I’m asking what you’re going to do about the police investigation.”
While I was deeply ruminating on my life, Lee Hyeonseok sat in my desk chair and asked. What do you mean, what am I going to do? If I knew how to handle it, would I be sitting here ruminating on my life? Lee Hyeonseok asked while taking his phone back from me.
“No, but why do I have to be investigated by the police?”
Then I thought of it. The culprit was caught, the body was found, and all the motives were revealed, so I couldn’t understand why I suddenly had to be investigated by the police.
“Didn’t you read the article properly?”
“?”
“It said she sensed someone’s presence.”
“Don’t tell me, that presence was…”
“Us. Since we were at the crime scene at the time, they’re doing some investigation. By the way, I’ve already been investigated by the police.”
What are the odds in life that I’d go somewhere someone had already claimed for burial and end up being investigated? Does this even make sense? Then again, did being possessed into a novel make sense either…
“Wow…”
At this unbelievable reality, only a weak exclamation came out of me. I rubbed my throbbing forehead. I closed and opened my eyes wondering if this was really my reality or if it was a dream, but nothing changed.
This was driving me crazy. The fact that even Lee Hyeonseok had been investigated by the police meant I absolutely couldn’t avoid it. I could only hope that Lee Hyeonseok wouldn’t say anything unnecessary. I couldn’t look Lee Hyeonseok straight in the eye, but he grabbed my cheeks with his thumb and index finger and turned my face toward him to make eye contact. My cheeks hurt.
“Do you know the feeling of becoming the son of a shaman house without even knowing it?”
“……”
“I momentarily thought I was an illegitimate child here too.”
“……”
“Received the mountain’s vital energy well? Thanks to that, I’ve become very healthy.”
I avoided his gaze. It seemed the taxi driver had run his mouth. After saying he wouldn’t say anything like that. Swallowing my tears inside, I decided to become a little shameless. I was already at the edge of a cliff.
“Hyung…”
“?”
“You said you’d let it go.”
“……”
“You said if we lived together, you’d let it go…”
I spoke as weakly as possible, acting pitiful. My eyes glistened as if I would cry at any moment, but it seemed like they would only glisten without actual tears falling. Better than nothing. Whether it worked or not, Lee Hyeonseok watched me silently before tossing my face aside. It was so forceful that my neck made a cracking sound from the recoil. What a rough bastard. If I were this bastard’s homeroom teacher, I would have written “Please focus on home education” a hundred times on the school newsletter.
“Sure. I’ll let it go, I will.”
“I?”
“Yes. I.”
Lee Hyeonseok’s words were ominous. “I,” he said. Then what about the rest?
“Do I have to pull strings to stop the police from catching you during the investigation? I wonder what will happen to hyung for the brick attack and attempted corpse abandonment.”
“Since… since you’re letting it go anyway, couldn’t you just do a little more…”
Lee Hyeonseok once again spoke annoyingly with that despicable smile. Oh— I really want to stab him. I wanted to rain down every curse and swear word I knew from my mouth. But if I acted up now, I might get the opportunity to make a friend in prison. I grabbed Lee Hyeonseok’s clothes and begged.
“It’s not like I can’t do it.”
“!”
My eyes lit up at Lee Hyeonseok’s merciful words. Of course, inside I was tense not knowing what kind of demand would come out of that mouth, but anyway, as long as I fulfilled the demand, everything would be solved. I resolved to accept even if Lee Hyeonseok made somewhat unreasonable demands.
“If you let me do it.”
“Do it, what?”
Had my comprehension dropped? I couldn’t understand what Lee Hyeonseok was saying at all. Let him do it, what? Unlike me tilting my head with a stupid face, Lee Hyeonseok spoke very calmly. He even showed unnecessary kindness by putting it more explicitly and simply.
“If you work hard with your body when I want, it’s not like I can’t do it.”
“What the fuck?”
It was fucking obvious that a curse would come out of my mouth.
“Don’t like it? Then forget it.”
Instead of pointing out my cursing, Lee Hyeonseok got up from his seat. His appearance of having no lingering attachment made even me anxious for no reason. Setting aside my anger, depending on Lee Hyeonseok’s cooperation, I could either make a new friend or not.
“W-wait! Wait!”
I blocked Lee Hyeonseok who was opening my room door. The door that was about to open slammed shut again. Lee Hyeonseok crossed his arms and looked down at me. I just gaped my mouth open and closed.
“If you have nothing to say, I’m leaving.”
“No, no, just a moment.”
Lee Hyeonseok put his hand on the door handle again. Startled, I grabbed his arm. Normally he made expressions that made me want to punch that face, but at times like this, his expressionless face made me lose all my spirit.
“Why, why… that, why with me, ha…”
I had no immunity to this kind of talk and ended up trailing off. I avoided his gaze, and my ears felt hot, so they must have turned red.
“Are you asking why I want to do it?”
“…Yes.”
Lee Hyeonseok smirked and finished my sentence for me. What’s so enjoyable, you perverted bastard. I wanted to look at his face and denounce him, but I didn’t have the confidence to look at his face, so I just stared at the ground.
“They say love your classmates, love your country.”
The bad thing was that I should just consider Lee Hyeonseok a bastard with a lot of fucking problems and give up understanding, but I couldn’t do that.
Having cooled down, I stared at Lee Hyeonseok with cold eyes. Whether I did that or not, his face and eyes were filled with rage and hatred. That’s exactly how I feel right now, but Lee Hyeonseok doesn’t understand that.
“You have no idea how fucking awful manifesting was.”
I don’t know what that is, but I don’t want to know for the rest of my life. Why is he trying to drag me into his shitty experience?
“For half a month, I acted like a fucking beast…”
In the media, they look like fucking beasts though. They looked like hedonists more than anyone.
“Hah… rather than show that sight to someone again, I’ll kill them this time.”
You really need to go to a psychiatrist sometime. You really should.
